Merrily We Fall
by LittleVolodya
Summary: Their paths always cross, in every lifetime, every universe. Drabbles involving Russia and England in some way.
1. Table Of Contents

Each drabble will be K or K+ and if not then I'll put trigger warnings, but there will be nothing explicit.

* * *

1\. Table Of Contents

2\. Trip To The Vet

3\. Surprise Party (Rus/Fem!Eng.)

4\. New Apartment

5\. Wedding (TW: Character Death. Rus/Fem!Eng.)

6\. Ice Cream (Russia & Fem!England friendship.)


	2. Trip To The Vet

**Trip To The Vet**

Bella, the vet receptionist, calls for the next patient and coos at the sight of the huge grey fluffball.

"Aww, aren't you adorable! Are you ready to see the doctor?" She says, reaching out to stroke one of his ears. The kitty looks up at her and mewls pitifully. "You don't have to be scared little one. My brother may seem scary, but he's actually a total softie."

Vanya, which was the fluffball's name according to his collar, looks around the waiting room in despair. He doesn't recognize this place at all, it smells strange and he doesn't know why his owner brought him here. She's holding on to him while she talks to the receptionist. He wriggles in her grasp and glances around the small room again. His ears perk up when his gaze lands on a small cat with folded ears, sitting atop a green pillow. Vanya shifts to test his owner's grip and purrs happily when he notices it's a bit loose,then he makes a run for it. He feels better when he jumps up onto the chair and lays next to the other cat. This place doesn't seem quite so scary if he's not alone.

Alfred tries to stifle his laughter when he sees the grey cat break free from the woman's arms, like a fluffy torpedo. _Poor guy_ , he thinks, _must be here to get fixed._ He watches as the big guy runs straight towards him and jumps on Arthur's chair and his favorite cushion that he'd brought from home to keep Arthur calm. He grins as he looks at the adorable sight of this huge ball of grey fluff covering his cat. The new cat is purring loudly, kneading at Arthur's cushion. Arthur looks a little annoyed at being used as a pillow, but he doesn't move.

"Aww, did you make a new friend, Artie?" He laughs and reaches for his phone. _This would be a great pic._

"I apologise for Vanya. He can be...nervous in new places."

Alfred looks up at that because, wow, that is a nice accent. His heart skips a beat when he sees the owner of said accent.

"Oh, don't worry, it's fine. I don't think Arthur minds, do ya buddy? So, um, I'm Alfred, owner of this guy with the folded ears here or maybe it's the other way around, cats choose the owner and all. I'm just lucky he chose me, I don't know what I'd do without the little guy. Cats are great, right? Anyway, uh, what's your name?" Alfred's a little worried that he messed that up until he hears a small laugh, which yeah, that sounds nice too.

"I'm Natalya."


	3. Surprise Party

**Surprise Party**

"Shut up." Alice whispers, trying not to laugh. She shoves Ivan playfully and puts a finger to her lips for a second. "I'm serious."

"I didn't say anything." Ivan says innocently, tilting his head.

"You're making faces! Just shush, we don't want to ruin the surprise."

He chuckles and tugs one of her pigtails. "As you wish."

"I love you too. Now, be quiet. He should be here any second."

They settle into the quiet semi-darkness of Alfred's apartment. They're behind Alfred's couch and Ivan wrinkles his nose, clearly he doesn't clean back here. He tries to wipe some of the dust away which turns out to be a mistake. He sneezes, once, twice, three times. Alice gently pats his shoulder, grinning. He hears quiet giggling from somewhere across the room and then hears Bella call out. "Aww, you sound like a kitten!"

A new eruption of giggling starts from around the room. Ivan looks over to see Natalya's shoulders shaking as she laughs quietly. Then they all begin shushing each other when they hear the doorknob rattling. They hear footsteps leading toward the living room, cursing as Alfred drops something. Next to him, Alice shakes her head. When Alfred finally enters the living room and flicks on the light, they all jump up and shout variations of 'surprise' and 'happy birthday'. Maybe they should have planned their shout better, but Alfred looks happily surprised anyway.

Ivan watches as Natalya goes over to hug Alfred and Alfred murmurs something into her hair. He feels a light tug on his scarf and turns to look at Alice, who is smiling smugly up at him.

"I win, right? He had no idea, that's five years in a row, I beat him again. Even with all your talking and sneezing!"

"I never doubted that you'd win." Ivan says, smiling gently.

"Of course you didn't, I am the best at surprise parties. And I wouldn't plan a terrible one for my best friend."

Ivan opens his mouth to reply, but shuts it when Kiku walks over to quietly tell them Alfred wants to cut the cake now. Ivan nods and lets Alice pull him into the crowded kitchen.

When everyone starts singing, Ivan closes his eyes to focus on Alice's voice. He feels incredibly lucky to have met her.

* * *

Notes: Meh. I don't like this one, but I thought I'd leave it in anyway.


	4. New Apartment

**New Apartment**

Ivan doesn't know how he feels about his new apartment. It's not that it's small or because the sinks always leaks or that his bedroom door always gets jammed. He can live with those things.

It's the weird cold spots, the fact that sometimes he finds cups of tea sitting on the table that he doesn't remember making and he swears that he hears voices. Maybe it doesn't sound that bad, but one day he came home to find 23 different cups of tea in various places. He hadn't even known that he owned that many teacups.

Besides all the washing up whatever this thing is ( _Ghost_ , he thinks, but doesn't want to be insensitive. _Spirit, maybe? Or non-corporeal being?_ ) generates, the incessant whispering is beginning to drive him crazy. It wouldn't be so bad if he could actually understand what the ghost is saying, but as hard as he tries it just escapes from him.

Maybe he died with a cold, Ivan thinks, and that's why he can't speak above a whisper and he keeps making tea to try to soothe his sore throat. Next time he's at the store he buys honey. That might help the poor guy.

He starts putting honey on every grocery list he makes. The ghost goes through it ridiculously fast.

"You should start paying rent, since we're roommates." Ivan says jokingly to his empty living room one day. He finds a pair of yellow mittens when he wakes up the next day.

He keeps all the odd stuff he finds in a box so he doesn't lose any of it. A book of poetry, a doodle of a duck, a phone charger. When he has to get a second box he wonders where the ghost is getting all of this.

When he goes to sleep he says goodnight to the air, then burrows into his blankets for warmth, thankful that he sleeps with his scarf on. It's always so cold now. Ivan dreams of snow and rain, narrow city streets and grey skies. He wakes up at three in the morning, shivering, his head feels heavy and his eyes ache like bruises whenever he blinks. He tumbles out of bed, struggles to shove a pair of gloves on his frozen fingers and wanders into the tiny kitchen. A cup of tea sits on the counter and Ivan reaches for it, hums contentedly when the warmth seeps through the gloves.

"Thank you." He rasps, wincing at the pain in his throat.

"You're welcome." He thinks he hears before he slips into unconsciousness.

When he wakes up again, it's afternoon and he finds himself on the couch buried underneath all the blankets he owns. He feels almost warm.

There's more tea, which he drinks as best as he can while lying down because his body aches too much to move, and as he's drifting off he asks the ghost for his name because he's tired of calling him ghost.

"Arthur." The voice sounds pleasant.

"Arthur." Ivan says, testing the feel of it. "Thanks for the tea, Arthur." He looks up into green eyes.

Actually, Ivan thinks, maybe this apartment isn't all bad.


	5. Wedding

**Wedding**

Ivan remembers their wedding day. Alice had looked absolutely stunning, surrounded by hundreds of tiny floating, twinkling white lights. Her smile had seemed brighter than ever as she walked down the aisle, taking his breath away. He remembers how excited she was when she was describing how she wanted it to look. Surrounded by all of their friends, in a clearing in the woods behind their house, lights everywhere, like fireflies. She always loved fireflies.

Ivan is pulled from his thoughts when he hears someone call his name.

"Mr. Braginsky?"

He feels like he can't breathe, his chest feels tight and _can't breathe, can't breathe, can't breathe._ He forces himself to stand, to walk over to this doctor, who he can't help but hate right now. He knows none of this is her fault, of course he knows that. She's just doing her job, after all. It's just...he can't shake the feeling that she's going to tell him something he doesn't want to hear.

-'

The ride home from the hospital is spent trying not to breakdown. It's a good thing he's not the one driving, he doesn't know how Alfred is holding himself together right now, maybe it's because when he gets home he'll have Natalya there to comfort him. He stares out the smudged passenger window into the sky, thinking lonely thoughts. Ivan feels lost.

' _What am I supposed to do now?'_

The doctors say there's nothing they can do. Make her comfortable, they say, quality of life. All this coming from some of the world's best specialists in magical injuries. He finds it far from comforting.

He vaguely hears Alfred talking at him. He can't focus on his voice right now and he knows Alfred won't mind. Ivan knows this is one of Alfred's ways of coping. Talking nonstop so he won't explode. Truthfully, he envies it. His own way involves copious amounts of alcohol, whispering his fears, his feelings to the empty bottles. Alice wouldn't approve.

Hot tears roll down his face, he doesn't want to go home to an empty house. He'll pick up Alice from the hospital tomorrow after just a few more tests, tests that won't say anything useful. He doesn't want her to die in a hospital bed. She deserves better than a cold, sterile white room.

-'

Ivan sits in the uncomfortable wooden chair that he'd put next to Alice's bed, his back aches, but he just keeps holding her small hand in his. _She looks so fragile_. He surprises himself when a laugh tumbles from his mouth, then it snowballs from there until he's giggling uncontrollably and his stomach hurts.

"I'm sorry. I know you hate it when people think you're fragile. You're not." He wipes a few tears from his eyes. "You're the strongest person I know."

Ivan lifts one of her hands and presses a kiss to it, rubs his thumb along her fingers.

"I love you, Alice." He takes a shaky breath and then says in a quiet voice, barely above a whisper. "I miss you."

He watches her breathe in, breathe out, breathe in.

He brushes a lock of hair behind her ear, watches her chest rise and fall, slowly. Then slower, slower. Breathe out.

Silvery moonlight illuminates the softly falling snow outside, the world quiet and still.


	6. Ice Cream

Notes: Editing stuff, added a table of contents.

* * *

 **Ice Cream**

Alice hums to herself, a song she'd overheard that morning from a commercial while her dad was watching tv, and tries to form the sand into something resembling a sand castle. It's not really working out so well. So far it just looks like a hill, but she's determined because if those two with the weird curls can do it, so can she. She's sneaking a peak at their castle again, it has flags and turrets!, when she hears a soft voice to her right. She looks up and her little sister Maddie hands her a somewhat melted vanilla ice cream cone. Maddie's watching her sandcastle efforts and holds her own cone, the maple nut ice cream slowly drips down her fingers and into the sandbox below.

"Hey, do you wanna help me?" Alice asks, distractedly, glaring at the sand hill in front of her because building with only one hand free is a little bit difficult.

Maddie shakes her head at the question and tugs on the sleeve of her sister's dress.

"What is it?" Alice asks, looking up this time because sometimes Maddie doesn't like talking. Maddie just points towards the swingset. "Oh. You want me to push you on the swings?"

Alice looks over toward the benches. Their dad, Alfred, is still talking loudly on the phone. He looks over and smiles at them before returning to his conversation, hands gesturing wildly.

"Okay. Come on then." She says and grabs Maddie's hand, making a face because it feels all sticky from the ice cream.

There were five swings and two of them were taken by a little girl with a pretty bow in her hair and a tall boy with a scarf. *Who wears winter clothes in the middle of summer?* Alice thinks before leading Maddie to the other side of the swings.

"Careful not to drop your cone, Mads." She mutters as she tries to figure out how to push her with only one hand because she still has her ice cream cone in the other.

One huge push later and she somehow ends up on the ground. The impact of the fall surprises a few tears into her eyes. Her cone lies next to her, melting in the dirt. She's a little bit dazed, but she hears the little girl with the bow offer to push Maddie and then she notices the tall boy standing in front of her.

"Would you like some of mine?" The boy asks brightly, holding one of his hands out to help Alice up off the ground, the other clutching a strawberry ice cream cone. She narrows her green eyes at him and her pigtails swing fiercely as she shakes her head no.

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." Alice is pretty sure her dad had meant adult strangers, but she's really embarrassed that this boy saw her fall and she sort of hopes he'll go away.

"My name is Ivan. Now you tell me your name and we won't be strangers anymore!" He smiles at her.

She hesitates for a second before telling him. "Alice."

"That's a pretty name." Ivan says and laughs when Alice just scoffs at him. "I can buy you another ice cream. My big sister gave me extra allowance this week!" Ivan wiggles his fingers and Alice glares at the ground before reaching for his offered hand and letting him help her up.

"Okay."

Ivan smiles at her again and starts pulling her toward the ice cream stand by the front entrance of the park.


End file.
